David Walliams has tried to kill himself four times

The 41-year-old comic was just 12 years old when he tried to hang himself and tried again with a makeshift noose in 2003. He was also hospitalised after an overdose of painkillers when he was 18, tried slitting his wrists and contemplated ending his life by throwing himself under a train.

In his autobiography, `Camp David` - in which he details the "deep depression that has blighted [his] adult life" - he wrote: "Wanting to die has always been in me."

A 2003 diary entry documents his most recent suicide attempt, which followed the breakdown of a relationship.

It reads: "Just tried to hang myself. But I knew I didn`t really want to die, I just didn`t want to live. I took my weight with my feet and sat down.

"Earlier, I had come close to stepping in front of a train. I am in total despair."

He used a kitchen knife to slit his throat and wrists on New Year`s Day 2003 but said: "The determination wasn`t there."

David - who is married to supermodel Lara Stone - made his first suicide attempt after he was bullied at a Sea Scouts` camp. He fled to nearby woodland with a makeshift noose but was "too tall".